Since the sixteenth century composers have been inspired by the emotionally charged atmosphere of the three great days of Holy Week. This programme presents some of the most exquisite music of the Triduum representing the agony and ecstasy of Holy Week and Easter.

For the past three years bassist Mick Sexton has led the revival of one of the most successful acoustic fusion bands of the 80s. Featuring music by such as Keith Jarrett, Mike Mainieri and Michael Brecker, they will remind you just how brilliant the music of the 70s and 80s was.

Sarah and Shireen make a welcome return to present their insight, not just into the songs, but also into the turbulent lives of two of the most influential singers of the 20th Century, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, with one of the finest rhythm sections in London.

Obsequious Doctor Bartleby has designs on his ward Rosina, but she is far more interested in the attentions of a handsome stranger (actually a womanising Count in disguise). The whole affair is stage-managed by Figaro, the barber who knows everyone’s business and can fix your hair and love life with ease.

The marvellous new album from the Nick Weldon Sextet is a jazz soundtrack for our time. The material - from Monk to Metheny by way of Augustan poet John Dryden, with Weldon’s skilful arrangements and original compositions - is strong and diverse. The improvising, from some of the UK’s finest and most inspiring players, is thrilling. Eleven shades of passion, explored by six superb musicians.

Michael Petrov, cello
City of London Sinfonia
Michael Collins, conductor

Herrmann: Overture to North by North West
Eisler: Kleine Sinfonie
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Korngold: Adventures of Robin Hood Suite

In the 1920s and 30s, an exodus of composers escaping religious and political persecutions created the sound of Hollywood, and some of classical music’s biggest names, Stravinsky chief among them, headed to Los Angeles in their wake. Half a century earlier, Dvořák left Prague to head for a new life in New York, and while there poured his longing for his Czech homeland into his Cello Concerto.

"There's never been anything more beautiful in all of music.” - Glenn Gould on the eve of recording the Art of Fugue

"The most perfect works of counterpoint ever written, 'a compendium of revelations’ blossoming from just one melody of arresting simplicity. A composer traumatised by 'the most terrible period of human history’ and driven to write an elegy for his war-torn home. These are the ingredients of two of the greatest polyphonic works ever written - Bach’s Art of Fugue and Strauss’ Metamorphosen.

In the ACO’s second concert at The Forge, you’ll find yourself immersed in a unique performance of both these masterpieces. First you’ll be surrounded by Bach’s extraordinary fugues, ranging from the serene to the brilliant, as members of the ACO perform each one from a different location around the hall. Then the orchestra’s string principals will perform Strauss’s Metamorphosen 'in the round’ at the heart of the Forge, drawing you into the intense melancholia of this memorial for bomb-destroyed Munich, which with ends with a ghostly echo from Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’.

British pianist Ivana Gavric created a sensation with her debut disc In the mists, winning BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year 2011 for ‘playing of an altogether extraordinary calibre’. Her recent third disc of works by Grieg, also on Champs Hill Records, was selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone and noted for ‘an electrifying performance’ (BBC Music Magazine). The Grieg Society has voted the CD as its ‘Recording of the Year’.

This season, Ivana has made debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Rafael Payare, as well as with the Grammy-nominated Trondheim Soloists. Previously, she has performed with the Aurora Orchestra, and collaborated with conductors including Ben Gernon, Nicholas Collon and Christian Kluxen. Named Gramophone’s ‘One to Watch’ and BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Rising Star’, Ivana has been heard on the major concert platforms in the UK including The Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, as well as across Europe, in Canada, Japan and Russia. Following her US debut in October, the Washington Post described Ivana’s playing as ‘impressive, insightful… a ravishing performance’. Attracting considerable praise for her interpretations of Janacek’s music in particular, Ivana has curated festivals dedicated to the composer’s solo and chamber works.

Not one of the 'higher, louder, faster' school of brass players, Lowther is without question one of the most respected trumpet voices in the world. His playing at last year’s Memorial Concert for his great friend and associate Kenny Wheeler, commanded admiration from one of the most illustrious gatherings of European musicians ever assembled in London.

14 May 2015

7pm
The In and Out Naval and Military Club
4, St James's SquareLondonSW1Y 4JUUnited Kingdom

Singer Carol has lived a rich and varied musical life, which began with her busking on the streets of London as a teenager. She performed at the first Glastonbury Festival, and was a member of the ground-breaking classical choir The Shout. Carol is unique with a career in jazz, blues, soul and poetry, and is always one of our most popular performers.

In an intoxicating programme of musical story-telling, chamber choir Londinium charts a course through the fantastical world of fairy-tale, fable, myth and legend. The landscape through which we journey is peopled by a weird and wonderful cast of characters, amongst them Alice in Wonderland, Ariadne, the King of Thule, Orpheus, Bunyan's Pilgrim and Robin Hood. The fauna is no less remarkable: the Unicorn, Crocodile, Phoenix and Hydra are to be found alongside the Ant and the Grasshopper, all brought to life in a glorious selection of choral music spanning six centuries. Highlights include exquisite madrigals by Monteverdi, beautiful folksongs by Brahms, a remarkable cantata by Martinů and Vaughan Williams' 'Valiant-for-truth', alongside works by Josquin, Weelkes, Schumann, Gounod, H Garrett Phillips, David Del Tredici and Ola Gjeilo.

Box Office:
Opera Viva returns for its 13th concert at Lauderdale House with a concert performance of Verdi’s 5th opera, Ernani, continuing our exploration of his early operas. It contains fabulous arias, duets and ensembles and, as with all our concerts, there will be a narration of the plot to make sure you do not get lost! Our concerts always sell out, so book early.

Since winning the Rising Star accolade in the 2013 Jazz Awards, Tim Thornton has cemented his position as one of the key young musicians in London. “…the most natural young bassist in years”, said the Evening Standard. Kit is joined by musicians with growing reputations on the UK music, so this band is one to watch.

Bach: Magnificat
In June of 1722, the post of Kantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig became vacant. Over the next seven months, a number of musicians applied for the job, and several were offered the position. Telemann, perhaps the most famous living German composer of the time, was the first to decline because he couldn’t get out of his contract in Hamburg. Several other musicians also turned down the offer. Near the bottom of the list was a little-known organist employed in Cöthen, Johann Sebastian Bach. He agreed to hire a deputy to teach Latin, and by spring of 1723 the Leipzig town council grudgingly agreed to appoint him the new Kantor.
He immediately began composing cantatas at an astounding rate, amassing nearly three hundred in the course of a decade. It was at the beginning of this feverish burst of sacred music composition that Bach wrote his Magnificat.
A concise and brilliant work, the Magnificat has become a regular feature of the choral repertoire since it was rediscovered in the 19th century.
In a programme which also includes the composer’s cantatas O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe, BWV 34 and Nun danket alle Gott, BWV 192, as well as a Handel Organ Concerto, Collegium Musicum of London again bring together a splendid ensemble of specialist baroque instrumentalists, led by Catherine Martin, together with soloists Amy Wood (soprano), Tim Travers-Brown (alto), William Balkwill (tenor) and Jimmy Holliday (bass).
A stirring evening of superb Baroque masterpieces awaits, in the atmospheric setting of St Sepulchre’s church in the historic heart of the City of London.